Damn These Vampires, the opening track on The Mountain Goats’ thirteenth studio album, All Eternals Deck, is arguably the band at their best. John Darnielle remains one of the most prolific, eloquent and sometimes underrated songwriters in modern music and, for many years, The Mountain Goats were his solo project. Indeed, in the past he recorded using a Panasonic boombox before transforming The Mountain Goats into their current three-piece ‘hi fidelity’ lineup, with a dozen or so different members having made their way through the band along the way.
His third album with long-time bass player Peter Hughes and drummer Jon Wurster, All Eternals Deck, has concerned some of Darnielle’s longtime, diehard fans. It’s too ‘produced’, they complain: it’s not the scratchy, crackly, frenzied emotion that Darnielle used to write in his DIY days. Instead, it’s clean and tight and Darnielle, widely regarded as one of the finest living lyricists, writes with control and purpose.
His talent lies in story telling and his instrumentation is admittedly simple. But, with intensely human songs, inspired lyrics and visual narratives, it’s easy to forget that the song is musically stripped to bare bone elements as the vehicle for sometimes very personal yarns.
The second track on All Eternals Deck, Birth Of Serpents, continues the uplifting, folksy lo-fi rock of the opener. But Estate Sale Sign is a manic, driving contrast to the previous two tracks, only to be followed by Ace Of Kings, a poignant ode to a broken relationship. Darnielle reminisces about love and pours out regret while looking to the future with lessons learned. In fact, most songs on All Eternals Deck are future-orientated, with Darnielle dishing out advice and predictions, while the album is named after a certain fictional deck of tarot cards. Beautiful Gas Mask is a highlight of the album if only for its composition and Darnielle’s warm, brotherly wisdom.
Musically, The Mountain Goats are sounding more like a tight-knit band than they ever have on their previous albums together. Initially, Hughes and Wurster seemed to be merely background accompaniment; a blackboard on which to showcase Darnielle’s lyrics. But songs like Prowl Great Cain and Never Quite Free exemplify the band’s development. The delicate piano and violin combination on Outer Scorpion Squadron is a musical peak of the album, swirling around Darnielle’s voice like an erratic breeze, building a moving melody of nostalgia.
The album closes with a double whammy of songwriting genius. Liza Forever Minnelli is about the great lady herself, while Brisbane Hotel Sutra is a journey, concentrating on Darnielle’s life. He’s survived a lot, including a turbulent childhood, so naturally survival is a recurring, ever-present theme in his music. It’s also one of the best examples of Darnielle’s autobiographic writing since Dance Music, and many people’s Mountain Goats song, This Year, (both of which appear on 2005’s Sunset Tree).
All Eternals Deck is superbly composed and flawlessly recorded, which, despite what backwards looking fans may say, is a good thing. Darnielle’s songs need to be heard for their easy-to-relate-to humanness, entertaining stories and life lessons and this current formation makes his music much more accessible.
